The Warrior boys had two games on their schedule this past week. On Thursday, they defeated the Rams, 4-3, in overtime and on Saturday night they beat Crookston, 3-1.

In the Roseau game, the play went back and forth in the first period with some hitting. The Rams had two quality scoring chances in the last four minutes of the period and outshot the Warriors, 11-3.

Coach Jay Hardwick stated, “We didn’t have a different game plan against Roseau, we just focused on needing to be aware of when their top players where on the ice and trying to limit their chances.”

The second period was an emotional roller coaster for the Warroad fans. They saw their team go down 2 goals to nothing after a power play goal by Alex Halstengard 2:34 into the period. On the play, the puck was slid across the crease and tapped in on the back side.

It wasn’t until 4:48 left of the period before Warroad got their first shot on goal for the period.

The Rams were moving the puck around magically and at the 4:13 mark, they got their second goal (Tanner Okeson). Justin King was caught way out of position and the net was wide open for Okeson to put it in.

“When we got down, 2-0, I made one change to the lines to try and better match up defensively and just told the boys that we needed to win more battles in the defensive zone,” said Hardwick.

It only took one minute for Kobe Roth (Kyle Sylvester, Zach Johnston) to strike back for Warroad. Roth’s shot deflected off of a Rams defenseman, hit the goalie, then the inside of the post and trickled in.

Forty seconds later, Roth (Nick Jaycox, Johnston) tied the game at 2. There was a draw to the right of the Ram’s goalie. Warroad won the draw. Roth slipped to the left of the goalie all by himself. He was found with a pass; he had all the time in the world to size it up and he put it top left side.
Jared Bethune had a good scoring chance early in the third when he busted out for a semi-contested breakaway. A Ram defenseman was able to get back and get a stick on Bethune and the goalie made a terrific save.

The play at the beginning of the third period was really frantic. Both teams were slapping at the puck and fighting for position on the ice.
Midway through the period, Matt Harrison scored his first varsity goal and put Warroad up 1 to the dismay of the Rams fans. There was a pass from behind the net, the goalie was down in the butterfly, there was shot and then Harrison put in the rebound.

With 3:26 left, the Rams scored on the power play. The right defenseman had the puck on the blue line. He passed it diagonally through the Warrior defensive box and Alex Strand turned on it and one-timed it into the net.

Neither team could muster another goal in regulation, but early in overtime, Justin King made 2 quality saves.

At the 6:49 mark, it appeared that Roseau scored the game winner, but the referee quickly waved it off to the ire of the Rams fans and coaches due to the net being knocked off.

Moments later, a Ram forward busted into the Warroad zone down the left side, got loose and walked in on King. The player went to his back hand and just barely missed putting it in the top shelf. Bethune was then tripped up inside his blue line and a rare overtime penalty was called.

While on the power play, Warroad scored the game winner with 3:44 left. There was a shot from the point, Bethune was out front and he tipped the shot with the shaft of his stick and it got by Ryan Anderson.

The Warroad fans went nuts. The Warrior players poured out of their bench and mobbed Bethune in the corner.

Hardwick said, “This game was very special for me. Every game is important, but the Roseau games are always a big deal. It was nice to get a victory in my first game against them as a head coach.”

King faced 28 shots and Anderson saw 21.

“I felt the most important thing that the boys did in this game in order to win was that they didn’t quit working. We started slow in the first period and found ourselves down, 2-0, in the second, but we battled back to tie it and eventually took the lead. We stuck to the game plan and kept our composure even when things weren’t going our way. I think our work ethic and perseverance allowed us to put ourselves in the position to eventually win the game.”

In the Crookston game, Jared Bethune (Roth) got the lone goal in the first period. Kyle Sylvester (Brandon Newhouse, Casey Anderson) and Casey Anderson got the other 2 goals in the second period.

Crookston got their lone goal in the third period.

King faced 25 shots and Crookston’s Parker Epema saw 26.

Warroad has three games on their schedule this week. They will be at home Tuesday against Bemidji and Thursday against TRF and on the road at Moorhead on Saturday.